Health & Wellness

This four-week series will help you take steps in creating positive changes for yourself. If you want to gain control over eating, smoking, relationships, emotions and other challenges, then this series will help you get started in taking steps towards your individual goal.

We will use meditation, visualization and some fun tools to keep you focused and creative.

Communication is more than just talking and listening – it’s also about sending and receiving messages through attitude, tone of voice, facial expressions and body language.

As people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias progress in their journey and the ability to use words is lost, families need new ways to connect.

Join us to explore how communication takes place when someone has Alzheimer’s, learn to decode the verbal and behavioral messages delivered by someone with dementia, and identify strategies to help you connect and communicate at each stage of the disease.

Essential oils have been called nature's medicine cabinet, and with good reason. These oils have been the subject of studies that have determined that there is a benefit to using essential oils for various therapeutic purposes. Since the latter part of the 20th century, essential oils have earned a respectable reputation for their medicinal uses.

Join Richard and explore how these products can be useful in treating various ailments.

Birch Point State Park on Penobscot Bay in the town of Owls Head, Maine offers a secret magical maritime forest and inspiring scenic views from a crescent shaped pocket beach.

Experience the medicine of this place. Reconnect with the landscape and in turn, with yourself and others. Soak in the sounds, scents and sights of nature through a series of place-based nature connection invitations. Feel the healing effects of the landscape, waters and wildland on your head, heart and body. Celebrate and share the experience in council and with a tea ceremony made with foraged wild plants. Notice the magic that occurs when you slow your body and open your heart to the natural world for a few hours—a restorative practice referred to in Japan as Shinrin Yoku or Forest Bathing.

The walk will be slow and cover less than a mile. The trail is relatively flat, but uneven due to tree roots and rocks. Dress for the weather and hiking. Bring water and a journal in a small backpack to keep hands free as well as a walking stick if you need it.

Composting toilets are available onsite. Sitting pads and a limited number of travel stools will be provided for those who need them.

Lisa Quatrale is a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide certified by The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs based in Santa Rosa, California. Lisa is committed to building regenerative bridges between the natural and built world, cultivating community that cares for the environment, and healing inner and outer landscapes one walk and one garden at a time.

Living well with chronic pain is focused on helping participants manage their chronic pain and symptoms. This program is taught by community members, many of whom have chronic pain themselves.

Originally developed by Stanford University, participants have reported less pain, more energy and fewer hospitalizations. You will be given the tools and tips needed to manage your chronic condition, live a healthier life, and take back control!

Did you know that ticks don’t jump or fly or drop from trees onto their hosts? They typically use a passive behavior known as questing to seek out their hosts. When questing, they can simply latch on to a suitable host as it passes by.

Learn about tick biology, ecology, tick-borne diseases in Maine and prevention. The class is taught by the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in cooperation with the Maine Medical Center Research Institute.

Are you looking for an opportunity to walk in a dry, safe, well-lit place? The hallways at Gardiner Area High School are available from 2:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Monday-Thursday, and are the perfect place to walk during the winter. You can walk indoors for an hour in the evenings and not worry about inclement weather!

You must register with MSAD Winter Walking #11 Adult Education and sign in every time you attend. Roster will be at the Adult Education Office in Room 124 at the High School.